Business Process Outsourcing CEO voted UK's top entrepreneur

Business Process Outsourcing CEO voted UK's top entrepreneur
In an interesting example of turnabout, Indian-born Dinesh Dhamija, Founder/CEO of Technovate, a Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) firm, has been named England's top entrepreneur by the country's leading monthly business magazine, Management Today. Technovate is a subsidiary of Europe's number one online travel agency, Ebookers.

Being in the travel industry, the company was hit hard by the aftermath of 9/11, but has bounced back even stronger than before, thanks to the BPO center in India. Dhamija cites two main reasons for their success: a low turnover rate in the Indian BPO center, and the European call center, with 40 native speakers offering service in nine languages.

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Mid-size companies are quickly jumping aboard the outsourcing wagon

Mid-size companies ($500,000 - $2 billion in annual revenue) are quickly jumping aboard the outsourcing wagon to solve their business challenges. However, specialized knowledge and skills are required to successfully capture the anticipated benefits from outsourcing. This knowledge is generally lacking in mid-size companies, still very young in their outsourcing experiences

BPO in insurance sector: Pains and prescription : White Papers

AbstractOutsourcing is not a new phenomenon or concept, and least of all, a fad. It arose out of the need of an individual, or any organization to get someone else to do a job which either they couldn’t do themselves, or chose not to. In fact insurance industry itself might have born out of the need to outsource one’s risks!
This white paper discusses about Business Process Outsourcing as it stands today focusing on future growth areas in the insurance sector. It gives an outlook of the key drivers, inhibitors, outsourced processes, latest trends and projections of outsourcing in insurance.
Authors: Balakrishna Ramani, Devendra Singh
Download this paper Source: wipro.com

Lessons From The Outsourcing Primer:

Some consider business process outsourcing (BPO) to be information technology (IT)-enabled business processes.
BPO has to be a contractual delegation of an ongoing process to an external contractor and not be used strictly for individual projects.
Though BPO is seen as the emerging market, it antedates information technology outsourcing (ITO).
BPO has evolved into a diverse set of markets that are separated into three categories: finance and administration; operations; and sales, marketing and customer care.

Software, IT-BPO exports to cross $ 31 b

India's software services and IT-BPO exports would exceed 31 billion US dollars in the current financial year, posting a growth of 32.6 per cent over the last fiscal, industry body Nasscom has said.
The employment in the sector would exceed 1.6 million, up from 1.28 million last financial year.
This figure, however, does not include employment in the IT hardware sector, Nasscom said in its 'Strategic Review 2007' report released here today. (Agencies)

India outsourcing faces UK workers' ire

LONDON, JANUARY 16: Workers of TV Licensing, the body responsible for collection and enforcement of television licence in Britain, have voted overwhelmingly to strike to protest against plans to outsource work to India.
The decision to agitate (94.6 per cent of workers voted in favour of it) was taken after Capita, a leading BPO and services company which employs a majority of the workers, revealed its plans to outsource work to Mumbai.

India's outsourcing mkt soars

While globally, IT firms witnessed an overall drop in new outsourcing contracts in 2006, Indian companies -- such as Infosys, TCS and Wipro bucked the trend with a sharp jump of over 14 times in their market share in the past four years, a new study shows. In contrast to the massive gains registered by Indian service providers, the market share of 'Big Six' global outsourcing majors -- Accenture, IBM, HP, ACS, CSC and EDS declined to 46 per cent last year, from 71 per cent in 2002. The market share of India-based providers rose to 7 per cent last year, from less than 0.5 per cent in 2002. According to a new study by outsourcing advisory firm TPI, there are tougher times ahead for the global IT majors as they face intensifying competition from new market players.

IT Outsourcing Exports of India

IT outsourcing exports of India became more than dollars eighteen billion in the previous fiscal year, actually that is grew up by thirty five percent from the last year’s annual growth. If India would not focus on multi-dimensional and innovation services, it might potentially accelerate only IT Outsourcing exports by an enormous twenty billion dollars by fiscal year 2010.
In India's total IT outsourcing exports, U.S. accounted it about sixty eight percent and Europe is accounting twenty four percent. About thirty five percent of Information Technology export services by India and sixty five percent of the exports form Business Process Outsourcing, call center, and related services to these sectors such as Knowledge process outsourcing that came from entirely owned operations in India by MNC.

Number of multinational organizations, technology firms and user companies has set up Software Development, BPO, and Call center franchisees in India while at the same time Indian IT Outsourcing companies are offering services to Europe and American based organizations.Currently, India's Business Process Outsourcing industry is employs more than one million people and it is the figure according to survey study, and those jobs were not created only in the big cities (metro and mega) but in smaller towns too. Due to high demand of Indian software, BPO services, Call center the industry faced a shortage of employees that is particularly sensitive in an industry of BPO & call center. The industry will have to improve its process and services to add greater value and after sell services to the clients and improve the productivity in IT Outsourcing industry.

Staff’s salary have been increased in Software Development Industry due to shortage of staff, and organization were able to contain at times even lower their costs by better utilization of resources, low infrastructure costs, decreased telecom tariffs and broadband connection cost.Now for the long term, India's Information Technology outsourcing industry would have to forge ties with educational institutions for ensuring a larger supply of quality IT - professional for the industry, itself.

Another study report says that the nation's IT Outsourcing Exports and services are expected to grow by in-between thirty to thirty percentages in the next year. In this year, exports of Information Technology software grew by 30.5 % to achieve $12 billion, while exports of BPO, Call center and related services grew by 44.5 percent to reach $5.2 billion. Despite fierce opposition in the previous year for Offshore Outsourcing from politicians and employee’s union in USA the growth in IT outsourcing exports came swiftly.

IBM - From Business Machines to Business Methods

IBM's direction marks a shift from its storied history as a computer industry bellwether. For decades, IBM concentrated on machines to carry out accounting and computing tasks. IBM was behind the curve on the emergence of the personal computer, and though it later gained ground against companies like Apple Computer, IBM was slow to adapt to the changes it brought in the marketplace. By 1993, the company's annual net losses reached a record $8 billion. Lou Gerstner, who took the reins of the company in 1993, is credited with emphasizing services as a key to the company's turnaround. Nearly half of IBM's $89 billion in revenue last year came from its services unit. (Gerstner's turnaround strategy is highlighted in a new book from Nightly Business Report and Knowledge@Wharton titled, "Lasting Leadership: What You Can Learn from the Top 25 Business People of Our Times.")
IBM became a leader in IT outsourcing, which refers to a company farming out work such as managing central computer centers or handling technical support calls. Big Blue began extending its services reach from the technology arena to business tasks about the time the company acquired the consulting wing of accounting giant PricewaterhouseCoopers, in late 2002. The roughly $3.9 billion deal was a landmark move. IBM combined the roughly 30,000 employees from PwC Consulting with about 30,000 IBM workers to form a new division called Business Consulting Services. The idea behind the acquisition and new unit was to generate revenue by joining IBM's technology prowess with PwC Consulting's business expertise. Analysts say the PwC Consulting deal has helped IBM compete in the BPO arena.

source and courtesy: http://knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu

The disadvantages of outsourcing / bpo

Loss of managerial control, because it is more difficult to manage outside service providers than managing one’s own employees working possibly in the same building. · Often the hidden costs are difficult to calculate or prepare for. These include legal costs related to putting together a contract between two companies and the time spent to coordinating the contract. · Another disadvantage of outsourcing can be a threat to security and confidentiality. If your company is outsourcing processes like payroll, medical transcriptions or other confidential information, a company must be very careful in choosing which process it wants to outsource and to which provider. · A possible loss of flexibility in reacting to changing business conditions, lack of internal and external customer focus and sharing cost savings may also be a disadvantage of outsourcing. · Other disadvantages of outsourcing may include unfavorable contract lengths, loss of competitive edge, problems in contract renewal, and contractual misunderstandings.

BPO in India - It's family first at tech cos & BPOs

Not many companies find fame in office cafeterias. But it was at just such a venue that Ness Technologies’ decision to “make the first job offer to an employable spouse” of an onsite employee found favour. “If a Ness employee is being sent onsite and has an employable spouse, as a policy, Ness always makes the first job offer.

IT behemoth Infosys also understands that thankful employees might go beyond their call of duty. According to an Infosys spokesperson, “The company handles such issues on a case-to-case basis. If the employee’s spouse is also working within Infy, then he/she may be transferred to the same place. Or, the option of a year-long leave can also be availed in such cases.”

With a growing number of employees being sent onsite for long duration projects, IT companies are leading from the front in shaping flexible HR policies. “It is an employee’s family that most often has to make sacrifices for his/her success. Therefore, it is only fair if company policies cover the family as well,” says an HR analyst.

BPOs open more doors to women

Move over Penelope Cruz, BPOs are giving a more relevant meaning to the phrase ‘Woman on Top’. Anxious to be fair to the fairer sex, BPOs in India are implementing innovative ideas to hike the ratio of woman employees in their workforce. Doing the rounds are measures like training women to get into senior management positions, giving higher monetary incentives for women referrals and higher perks for placement agencies to draw women candidates to interviews. IBM Daksh, which employs 20,000 professionals in India, is taking a cue from its parent IBM, and focusing on a `diversity program’. IBM Daksh will look at putting women in senior positions over the next quarter, says DP Singh, VP — Strategic HR, IBM Daksh Business Process Services.